HARBIN

Chinese (WadeGiles romanization) Ha-erh-pin, Pinyin Haerbin, second largest city of Northeast China and capital of Heilungkiang Province (sheng), on the Sungari River. The city owes its origin to the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway by the Russians at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Before 1896 it was a small fishing village. Thereafter it became the construction centre for the railway, which by 1904 linked the Trans-Siberian Railroad from a point east of Lake Baikal in Siberia with the Russian port of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan. Harbin was a base for Russian military operations in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War (19045). At the end of that war Harbin temporarily came under joint ChineseJapanese administration. It became a haven for refugees from Russia after the Revolution of 1917 and for a time had the largest Russian population of any city outside the Soviet Union. During the period of the Japanese-dominated state of Manchukuo (193245), Harbin was known as Pinkiang. Soviet troops occupied the city in 1945, and a year later Chinese Communist forces took it over and from it directed their conquest of Manchuria. Since 1949 Harbin has become the chief industrial base of Northeast China. The city's traditional food-processing industries comprise soybean-processing plants, sugar refineries (for sugar beets), and flour mills. There are also tobacco, leather, and soap factories. Modern industries include the production of machine tools, mining and metallurgical equipment, agricultural equipment, plastics, and electric power turbines, boilers, and generators. The city is also the outfitting centre for the Ta-ch'ing oil fields to the northwest. The surrounding agricultural region supports the cultivation of wheat, soybeans, sugar beets, corn (maize), flax, and kaoliang (a grain sorghum). Harbin is a shipping centre for agricultural and forest products sent to the rest of China. An airport is located on the southern outskirts of the city. The city hugs the right (south) bank of the Sungari, but winter port facilities are also located on the left (north) bank near the great railway bridge across the river. New urban development also has been taking place on the left bank. Like most foreign-developed cities in China, Harbin consists of a number of quarters. These include the port and industrial district on the right bank; the adjacent Tao-li commercial district; the old Chinese residential quarter, an area of shops and wholesale and retailing activities; a Japanese-built residential area; and the relatively newer areas of Harbin away from the river, which include the railway station and city administrative offices and which developed primarily after World War I. These areas have expanded very rapidly since 1949 as the total population of the city has grown. Large blocks of apartments have been constructed in recent years on the outskirts of these areas. In the city's layout, a rectangular grid pattern prevails. The site of the city is generally level to undulating, except near the river itself, where low bluffs lead down to the floodplain in places. During the winter, skating and sledding on the river ice are popular sports. Bus services connect the various parts of the city, but automobiles and trucks are comparatively scarce. Theatres, libraries, hospitals, and schools are well-distributed. Although the city continues to have a Russian air, many of the Russian-built or Russian-influenced buildings have been replaced with contemporary ferroconcrete structures. Pop. (1985 est.) city centre, 2,217,300; city, 2,592,100; city and administratively attached counties, 3,770,900.